Bob Simon, veteran reporter for the prestigious CBS news program 60 Minutes, is
upset with us. Apparently, our ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, called
his producer to complain about Simon’s unaired show on Christian Palestinians,
calling it “outrageous [and] completely incomprehensible” especially “when
Christians all over the Middle East’s Muslim world were being oppressed and
massacred.”

It wasn’t the criticism, but the timing that bothered
Simon.

“I’ve never gotten a reaction before from a story that hasn’t been
broadcast yet,” he said.

“There’s a first time for everything, Bob,” Oren
answered.

Now that the segment has been broadcast, let me offer Oren my
congratulations. He was dead-on. The piece would have done credit to the
Palestinian Ministry of Propaganda.

To be fair, fairer than Simon at
least, he does acknowledge right at the beginning of his program that “one place
where Christians are not suffering from violence is the Holy
Land.” Nevertheless, Simon goes on to say, they are leaving in droves
because of the Israeli occupation, painting the alarming specter of Christian
holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem “without local Christians.”

While
one might argue, wrongly, that Simon is weighting responsibility for this
equally between Muslim extremists and the Israeli “occupation,” even that would
be incorrect.

As I vividly recollect, back in 2001-2 during the height of
the intifada I was receiving alarming email messages several times a day from
Christian organizations decrying the rape and kidnap of local Christian girls by
Palestinians as a means of converting them; the use of Christian homes in
Bethlehem by Tanzim sharpshooters who targeted homes in Gilo, in the hope that
Israeli fire would devastate Christian communities; the desecration of Christian
shrines and churches by Palestinian gunmen, including the repulsive siege of the
Church of the Nativity, in which dozens of priests and unarmed Palestinians were
held hostage by terrorist gunmen, while arguably the holiest shrine in
Christendom was trashed by Arafat’s men.

Oddly, none of this found its
way into the 60 Minutes segment, which was at pains to point out that “Bethlehem
is on the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Christian section of Jerusalem is also
under Israeli control.” The numbers in Bethlehem are “bleak,” Simon tells
us.

Even that is deceptive.

Uri Dan wrote in The Jerusalem Post on
January 11, 2002: “Altogether from 1994, when Arafat took power, 10,000
Christians emigrated from Gaza, Judea and Samaria.” Once a Christian stronghold,
by 2002 Muslims outnumbered Christians in Bethlehem four to
one.

Nevertheless, the mass exodus theory and the fear-mongering
statements of the survival of Christian culture in the Holy Land is not borne
out by statistics. Back in 2001, Dan reported that the entire Arab Christian
population was 61,000, about 2 percent of the entire Arab population. According
to 2009 statistics of the CIA world population handbook, Christians numbered
196,000, or 2.8% of the Arab population. Moreover, as Ambassador Oren pointed
out, the exodus of Christians is from PA-controlled West Bank. Arabs in the
Israeli town of Nazareth, for example, are thriving.

Still, Oren freely
admitted Christian communities are living under duress.

But that was not
enough for Simon. He has to point the finger of blame, otherwise what’s the
point of his pointless rehashing of this non-story?

Quote Simon: “And this
duress is coming from Muslims, not from the Israeli occupation?” Yes, Oren
confirms.

Giving a little more
credit to the American public, I’m sure they prefer Oren’s goods to Simon’s
shoddy alternative. After all, when was the last time a Christian church was
desecrated by Israelis? The last time Jews raped Christian girls to convert them
to Judaism? The last time the Israeli authorities shook down a Christian
businessman?

As for Christians in east Jerusalem, I do not deny they are in a
difficult position, but the causes seem far different to me than Simon presents
them. In a recent article about an Arab from east Jerusalem who is among those
to be honored for distinguishing himself as an IDF soldier, the article pointed
out that he lived in fear that his Muslim neighbors might find out, was forced
to tell them he was away at school and to hide his uniform when he goes
home.

ONE OF the most offensive segments is the heart-tugger interview
with Christie Anastas, a Christian Arab in Bethlehem. Already informing viewers
that Israel’s security wall – (might I point out, since Simon does not, that the
security wall was put up by Israel after Israelis were forced to stop painting
doves and bury hundreds of dead in suicide bombings and other terror attacks)
has turned Bethlehem into an open-air prison, Simon’s questions heavy-handedly
give her the answers.

Simon: “How do you live with this?”

But she fails
to take her cue: “It’s not easy but you get used to it. Because you have
to.”

Too bad Simon didn’t ask any Israelis what they were forced to get
used to for security reasons. I’m sure Ms. Anastas doesn’t have her purse
checked every time she goes into a store, or have to look around her for bombs
when she gets on a bus.

And it’s so hard to leave Bethlehem to enter
Jerusalem, Simon says tiredly, bringing up the old bromide of the terrible
waiting at checkpoints, as if there never was an intifada or suicide bombers, or
snipers shooting at the roads from Jerusalem to Gush Etzion, threatening
residents’ lives. As if my windshield hadn’t been smashed by a rock while
passing into Bethlehem on the way home to Jerusalem from a wedding in
Efrat.

Just listen to yourself, Mr. Simon! If you want to be critical, at
least come up with something original. The Palestinian propagandists and terror
supporters have beaten that horse to death. Worse than being false, it’s
downright boring.

But no. Simon is boring to the end. He brings up the
call by virulently anti-Jewish and anti-Israel Christians in 2009 in Kairos
which called Israeli occupation “A sin.” It was endorsed by 13 Christian
denominations, including all those who called for divestment from Israel, and
many of whom embrace replacement theology which says the Christians are actually
now the chosen of God, and that unbaptized Jews have lost that
role.

Michael Oren points this out to Simon, suggesting that these groups
have “gone beyond legitimate criticism....”

“What does that mean?” Simon
blusters, apparently flabbergasted at this perfectly reasonable statement. So
Oren spells it out for him: “Accusing us of crimes historically associated with
anti-Semitism.”

Duh.

With a few more predictable interviews,
including with journalist Avi Shavit, brought in to no doubt counter the mostly
if not entirely anti-Israel stance he has taken, Simon gets to his big finale,
asking Shavit: “Do you think the Israeli government ever thinks of the fact that
if Christians aren’t being treated well here, and America is an overwhelmingly
Christian country, that this could have consequences?”

Why does that sound like
wishful thinking, Bob?

But again, Shavit disappoints him, saying clearly:
“Israel is not persecuting Christians as Christians. The Christians in the Holy
Land suffer from Israeli policies that are a result of the overall tragic
situation... this has consequences for everyone.”

But Bob isn’t
convinced. He warns that angry Christians who are a major source of tourism
could stop coming to Israel, conjecturing that this must be the reason that
Ambassador Oren phoned Jeff Fager, head of CBS News and executive producer of 60
Minutes, telling Jeff that Simon’s story was a “hatchet job.”

Or perhaps
the reason could be... that it is. And done with a tired, rusty hatchet
at that, held by a tired, rusty journalist who might want to consider that the
time has come to put it down and delve into his real motivation for doing such
PA propaganda piece.

In the manner of Mr. Simon, let me make a wild
allegation based on nothing but conjecture to answer that question.

Years
ago, I filmed a 60 Minutes segment with Mr. Simon that was never aired. It
concerned a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) woman who was the basis for my play, Women’s
Minyan.

At that time, I believe he told me that he lived in Israel
year-round. Could that, if I’ve got it right, perhaps explain a
bend-over-backwards attempt to show the Palestinian point of view, lest he be
accused, God forbid, of liking Israel too much?

Not to worry, Mr. Simon, with
this segment you have certainly put to rest any such shameful allegation.